title: Bacteriological profile of neonatal septicemia and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Septicemia in neonates refers to generalized bacterial infection documented by positive blood culture in the first four weeks of life and is one of the four leading causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity in India.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To isolate and identify the bacterial etiologic agents responsible for neonatal sepsis and to determine the susceptibility pattern of isolates in a tertiary care hospital in North Karnataka.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six hundred eighty-three blood samples were collected and processed from patients in accordance with standard protocols. Antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was done by disc diffusion method according to National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) recommendations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Blood culture reports were positive in 19.2% cases. Among the culture positive cases, there were 65.5% males and 34.5% females. Early-onset sepsis was present in 74.8% and late-onset sepsis was observed in 25.2% of the cases. Best overall sensitivity among Gram-negative isolates was to imipenem (93%), followed by amikacin (52%) and netilmicin (41%). Gram-positive isolates had sensitivity of 91% to linezolid, 68% to tetracycline, 64% to piperacillin/tazobactam erythromycin, and 52% to ciprofloxacin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gram-negative organisms (Klebsiella, Acinetobacter), coagulase-negative staphylococci, and Staphylococcus aureus are the leading cause of neonatal sepsis in this study and most of them are resistant to multiple antibiotics. Therefore the results of this study suggest that, surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in our hospital is necessary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, BLDEU's Shri BM Patil Medical College, Bijapur, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jyothi
authors.forename: Metri C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Basavaraj
authors.forename: Peerapur V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Basavaraj
keywords: Antimicrobial resistance; antibiotics; neonatal septicemia